it's now april so let's finish talking about december

 I have no exciting stories of what I've been up to, even if there was anyone out there interested enough to ask.  I've been working too much and not sleeping enough and not taking care of myself but doing nothing about that but beating myself up - which doesn't work, by the way.

Finally, the weather has started to warm up and we've gotten out for some walks and fresh air.  

We've been watching some good shows and I've been trying to read more.  The house needs a good cleaning and an aggressive clean out - perhaps coming soon, perhaps not.  I know it would make me feel better in the end, but it's hard to get started. 

But let's finish up 2022.

This cauliflower cheese was made around the holidays and it was THE BEST cauliflower cheese I've ever made, but don't worry, I didn't keep the recipe, or remember where I found it.

This is not the prettiest picture on this site - and by far not the ugliest either - but we made these on Christmas Eve - wonton cups with cranberry sauce and brie cheese.  Yummy.

I made these cinnamon rolls and nobody cared.

Yorkies on Christmas Day

The Boy gave me his woodworking projects for Christmas

 And then these were my second favorite present

Cookbook Cleanup Book 14 - From a Southern Oven

Book 14 is a dollar store find, and it was $3 well spent.

From a Southern Oven shares over 150 Southern recipes that cover everything from pimento cheese to crab cups to country ham and beyond.

This is a fun book to just read as well - the history of the recipes, the authors stories and opinions - what the hell a scuppernong is - make for a great book.

I tried 6 recipes from the book, and I had to cut myself off because every time I open this one I find something new I want to make.

I started with the Ham Tetrazzini, which I mildly screwed up by forgetting to add a couple of ingredients, but it still turned out very good.  And provided me with a new photo for my bad photos of good food label.

 We also tried the Sunday Breakfast Rice and Sausage Casserole, which the kids flat out refused to eat for breakfast.  What do they know?

The Wheat and Honey bread marked by triumphant return to bread baking and it was picture perfect, which you will have to image as I haven't been taking many photos lately.

The Mississippi Muffins were really more like delicious cupcakes, and Aunt Rhoda Gray's Refrigerator Cookies disappeared faster than any other cookie in recent memory.

Sausage Loaf was a bread heavy meatloaf make with pork and sausage and it made the best sandwiches.

I have so many more recipes I want to try - jambalaya, pimento mac and cheese, tomato pudding, fudge pie.....this is a great book.

Cookbook Cleanup results so far - Bookshelf -7  Donated - 7

2 bad photos of 2 good things

Not that any of my photos are wonderful, but sometimes my photos are truly horrendous, even by my low standards.  And I get grumpy because maybe I wanted to share a link to a really good recipe, but I don't have much to say other than here is a really good recipe, and a really bad photo but my photo is so bad that I just give up and don't.

But this time I will - these photos and links have been sitting in my drafts for a while because the photos are bad but the recipes are sooooo good.

First up is a broccoli cheese soup.  The soup was really good and easy to make because you toss it all in the instant pot.  I couldn't be bothered to try to take a nice photo on the counter or table, and instead tried to take a photo of it in my lap in my chair in the living room.  No.

Recipe: instant pot broccoli cheese soup

Next up is a very very good apple crisp with a yummy brown sugar and cinnamon crust.  The recipe called for cold butter and mine was not, which is why I think it came out looking like this.

Not horrific, but not really great.

It tasted amazing though.  Love me some apple crisp.

Recipe: Four Ingredient Apple Crisp

Roasted Cabbage

I can't even pretend to try to get a good photo of a slab of roasted cabbage.  It had no good angle.  But lots of delicious flavor.

I found this recipe on Facebook, thanks to a friend. 

The children, shockingly, did not share the grown-ups enthusiasm for it, but whatevs.  More for us!

Recipe: Oven Roasted Garlic Cabbage